Time for a Week Off

I thought that I would treat myself to a week off so that I don't have to feel down about the end of a long weekend. And so that I can take a break from the military routine that I have going on.

The run up to having time off is always the worst, it appears to go extremely slow, and then the time you do have off always goes really quick! On my last day at work before my time off I spent four hours in court, most of which was spent in the waiting area and interview rooms. These areas do not have air conditioning and given the exotic temperatures recently, I worked up quite a big sweat.

It's quite embarrassing when I'm asked what I'm going to do with my time off. I'm quite a lazy person, so mainly I do nothing! I like to take the time off so I don't have to worry about anything and just focus on relaxing, because why not.

I'm going to make the most of being able to wake up when most people have started work and spending most of my days working out and eating. I have plans to see friends and I believe I am being taken away somewhere for the night, but I have absolutely no idea where I'm going! It's a surprise so I'm super excited, I shall have to blog about that next week.

I hope everyone enjoyed their bank holiday and made the most of a long weekend. Enjoy the short working week!

Taking Care of Yourself

As a Trainee, I find myself occasionally getting too stressed. I can find myself getting frustrated with myself over the smallest of tasks and by the end of the day I end up feeling exhausted.

It's always important for anyone, whether it be a Trainee or someone that's been qualified for years to take care of themselves. Nothing is more important than your mental and physical health.

When I feel stressed, my first point of call is to go to the gym. I know this isn't everyone's most favourite place but for me, I only need to walk on a treadmill for a few minutes and I can already start to feel my mood being lifted. Even better, hitting the weights really releases the tension in my body so by the time I've left I feel like a new person.

When you're feeling stressed out, it's good to just take a 'time out' moment to analyse what is actually going on and how you can work around things, prioritise the most important pieces of work and go from there.

Remember that there is more to life than your job, cancel all your plans for the evening and relax to recharge yourself for the next day. Go even further, cancel all your weekend plans and do absolutely nothing!

If things are really getting too bad you know what the best thing to do is? Book a holiday, and just never return!

Remember, happy mind happy life!

Where has the time gone?

I had one of those Trainee 'panicky' moments this week. I actually can't believe how quick the time has gone. We are shortly going to be coming into the Autumn/Winter months and then it will have been a whole year since I started my training contract.

WHAT IS GOING ON?!

How and why does this happen? I have no idea where the days are going!

I feel like I have only just started in the Family department, but it's actually been around 6 weeks, that's something I just cannot get my head around.

I remember being told that the training contract will go quick but you never truly believe it. I'm being asked by colleagues where would I like to qualify already and I feel like currently I have no idea. It's a scary thought that this time next year I will need to start seriously considering this.

For now I'm keeping an open mind on everything, embracing the madness, and then I'm sure soon enough I will be writing another panicky entry about qualifying!

Instructions, Petitions & Free Advice

It's been another week of family work. Divorce petitions, instructions to Counsel, bundles and so forth.

I've found that so far there is a wide variety of things to do an consider with family law. I'm enjoying the fact that all work is different, whether it be matrimonial or children issues. Each matter is completely different too as there are always different circumstances with every family.

I've seen that on some pieces of work I'm starting to get less 'red pen' marks so this is looking good. Hopefully by the end of this month I will have no corrections! As a Trainee you have to learn to not be so disheartened when your work gets scribbles all over it. It's part of the learning process to make mistakes and be shown the correct way of approaching certain tasks.

This week I also had to attend the Law Advice Centre. For those that don't know this is an advice clinic which provides free 30 minute advice sessions for vulnerable people in the Ipswich and Suffolk area.

This was the first time that I attended the advice centre to advise all clients without having a qualified person with me, so I was rather nervous. The sessions were quite intense this week and I found myself having to concentrate extremely hard to get to the crux of the issue. But I feel that I gave sound advice and pointed the clients in the right direction.

I hope all had a good week and enjoyed their weekend. Here's to another successful week for all!